Tai Tzu-ying

Tai Tzu-ying (Chinese: 戴資穎; pinyin: Dài Zīyǐng; Wade–Giles: Tai Tzu-ying; born 20 June 1994) is a Taiwanese professional badminton player and the current world No 2.[1]
In 2011, she won the title of Taiwanese ranking competition when she was only 16 years and 6 months old, becoming the youngest No. 1 in Taiwanese badminton history. She became world No. 1 in women's singles on December 2016, age 22, and has been ranked No.1 for 125 weeks (as of 30 April 2019), the most in BWF history, surpassing Li Xuerui.

Tai was a finalist at the 2010 Singapore Super Series. She won her first international title at the 2011 US Open Grand Prix Gold at the age of 17.[2] She won her biggest titles at the Superseries Finals in 2014 and 2016, and won the Superseries Premiere event, Indonesia Open, in 2016. She won six consecutive titles spanning 2016 and 2017, and had a 27-match winning streak since losing to Sung Ji-Hyun at the Superseries Finals. She won the All England Open back to back in 2017 and 2018, and also won the Hong Kong Super Series three times, in 2014, 2016, and 2017.

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Tai's father is a firefighter and the director of Kaohsiung city's badminton committee.
Her favourite activity in her spare time is playing badminton. Tai started playing badminton as a third grader in elementary school. She won the title in the second national division, earning the right to participate in the first division games. Furthermore, she was the youngest player to compete in the first division.

In 2009, Tai, aged 15, began to compete in international games. She was the runner-up in her first game at the Vietnam Open. In July, she represented Kaohsiung City in the National Games and went into the quarter final. In the same month, she entered the Asian Youth Badminton Tournament in Malaysia and became the runner-up. In December, Tai competed at the East Asian Games for Chinese Taipei and won one silver and one bronze medal.

In 2012, she won her first Super Series title in the Japan Open and made history as the youngest player to win the Super Series title (currently the third youngest player, after Ratchanok Intanon won the India Open in 2013, and Akane Yamaguchi won the Japan Open 2013).

Tai represented her country at the 2014 Asian Games and won Chinese Taipei's first badminton medal by placing third.[3] She won the Hong Kong Open in 2014 after beating Nozomi Okuhara of Japan in straight sets, 21–19, 21–11. She extended her winning streak to the Super Series Finals in Dubai and won the first gold medal for Chinese Taipei in the Super Series finals by beating Sung Ji-hyun in straight sets.[1]

In 2016, Tai won the Indonesia Super Series and the Hong Kong Super Series to reach World No. 1 for the first time in her career. She won the Super Series Finals in Dubai for a second time, becoming the second women's singles player to do so (after Li Xuerui in 2012 and 2013). She also made history by becoming the first women's singles player to reach the finals in the Super Series Finals three times. She ended 2016 as the year-end No. 1.

Before the 2017 season started,[4] Tai announced that she would skip that year's World Championships in Glasgow. Tai decided to attend the 2017 Summer Universiade not only out of a desire to earn a title[5] for her home country but also for the bigger picture.[6] Since the Summer Universiade was by far the biggest sporting event held in her home country, only second to the Olympic Games, Tai wanted to welcome the world to see Taiwan. President Tsai commended Tai's decision.[7] She won the Special Contribution Award in 2017 Sports Elite Awards.

Tai started her 2017 season ranked No. 1, and won her first All England title in March, beating Ratchanok Intanon in the finals. In April, Tai won the Malaysia Open as well as the Singapore Open beating Carolina Marin in the finals two times in two weeks. Her titles in Malaysia and Singapore were her fourth and fifth consecutive ones. Later in April, she won her another title against Akane Yamaguchi in the Badminton Asia Championships held in Wuhan, China, marking a sixth consecutive title. It was also the first gold medal for Taiwan in this competition.

After winning 3 matches in the 2017 Sudirman Cup, Tai had extended her winning streak to 27 matches, before losing to Nitchaon Jindapol in the quarterfinals in Indonesia.

In the starting of the season Tai participated in the Malaysian master super 500 tournament in which she defeated Chen Yufei in the quarter final and Carolina Marin in a thrilling semi final, coming from a game down, but lost to Ratchanok Intanon in final.

Her next tournament was the Indonesian Master 500, which she won after defeating Saina Nehwal of India.

Due to tournament rescheduling, Tai could not defend her 2017 Singapore Open title and lost the world number 1 ranking to Japan's Akane Yamaguchi.

In 2018 Asian Games, held in Jakarta, she won the title by beating P. V. Sindhu in a straight set, it is her first big title after the victory in Jakarta.
[8]

After crowning the women's singles' title of 2018 Denmark Open, her ranking points will coming to 101,517. She becomes the second player in the women's singles category to break 100,000 points, whose the first is Li Xuerui from China, led the points by 101,644.

Her next tournament was the HSBC BWF World Tour Finals 2018 and she was the top seed. In the group stage, she was placed in Group A along with Akane Yamaguchi, PV Sindhu and Beiwen Zhang. In her first match, she defeated Beiwen Zhang 21-15, 21-17 in straight games. In her second group stage match, she lost to PV Sindhu 21-14, 16-21, 18-21.[9] However, she retired with an injury in her third group stage match against Akane Yamaguchi after losing the first set 17-21 and trailing 12-11 in the second game. Tai did not reveal the nature of the injury or how it occurred.[10]

Tai plays an offensive game, with many calling her style unpredictable and often spontaneous. She is a very adventurous player with huge disguise and she seems to be able to hit the shuttle from just about anywhere with a great range of different shots and angles. Remarkable is also her very relaxed hitting motion. Tai has clocked fast smashes, with the fastest recorded being 360 km/h at the 2016 All England Open quarterfinals,[citation needed] despite her preference of playing slowly so she could set up shots. She has a strong backhand and good net-play, her biggest fault being inconsistent at times. Tai has strong stamina, being muscular and with a six-pack.
Tai herself said that she does not follow a certain play or style, and focuses on herself rather than her opponent or strategies. Tai's prodigious talent and deceptive shot-making has earned compliments of many, including BWF commentator Gillian Clark, who has said that Tai is one of the best players to watch in women's singles, and has often complimented her shot-making and talent.

The BWF World Tour, announced on 19 March 2017 and implemented in 2018,[11] is a series of elite badminton tournaments, sanctioned by Badminton World Federation (BWF). The BWF World Tour are divided into six levels, namely World Tour Finals, Super 1000, Super 750, Super 500, Super 300 (part of the HSBC World Tour), and the BWF Tour Super 100.[12]

During the period of 2016 Summer Olympics, Yonex provided unfit shoes to non-contract Tai. This forced Tai to wear other shoes made by her personal sponsor brand, Victor, without any logo. This event caused a controversy with the Chinese Taipei Badminton Association.[15][16]